


Let Your Heart Be Light

by IBoatedHere



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Baking, Bitty is overwhelmed, Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:31:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9278132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBoatedHere/pseuds/IBoatedHere
Summary: “Jack. Sweetheart. If these cookies don’t work out,” he drops his voice to a whisper, “I’m going to have to bring store bought cookies to holiday parties.”“I won’t let that happen.” He pats Bitty’s butt and tells him to get going.





	

Jack comes home from practice to find the kitchen counters covered in flour and cookies and his boyfriend sitting on the floor with his back against the oven crying.

He drops his bag by the door and hits his knees as soon as he’s by Bitty’s side.

The tile is hard and cold on his knees which are already a little sore from practice but he pushes away the discomfort to focus on figuring out what’s wrong.

He gathers Bitty’s face in his hands, apologizes for how cold they are, and tilts his chin up.

It’s clear he’s been crying for awhile. His face is red and splotchy and he leans into the cool touch so Jack fans his fingers out and covers his forehead with his palm.

“Bits, what’s the matter?” Jack asks gently. “C’mon, bud, talk to me.”

Bitty sniffles while Sinatra sings about Santa Claus coming to town in the background.

“Nothing is working,” Bitty says. He sounds exhausted and Jack’s chest aches. He pulls Bitty closer to him like that’s going to soothe it. “I’ve been working on these cookies all day and I just-.”

“The cookies.” Jack’s hands still on Bitty’s back and he pulls him back enough to look at him. “This is about cookies?”

Bitty wipes his nose on the back of his hands and blinks at him. “Yeah.”

“Oh,” Jack laughs, relieved, and hauls Bitty back against his chest. “Oh, Bitty.”

“This isn’t funny, Jack. Everything is falling part. I can’t do anything right.”

“It’s not funny, I know, I know. But I come home and find you crying on the floor. Bits- I thought someone had died. I should’ve known. You do this every year. You always try to make a million different things and you overwhelm yourself.”

“This shouldn’t overwhelm me. I should be able to make a stupid gingerbread cookie. If I can’t bake what good am I?”

“Hey.” Jack shakes Bitty’s shoulders lets his lips brush the shell of his ear when he speaks. “You know you’re worth more than that.”

“I know,” Bitty admits. “I’m just being dramatic but there is something wrong with me today. Every cookie I make comes out way too hard no matter how long I bake them for. I’ve made three separate batches! The icing isn’t coming together and everything tastes off and I just can’t deal with it.”

“Maybe it’s just a bad recipe.”

“It’s the same one I always use.”

“I’m home now. I can help you.”

Bitty snorts.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Bittle.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you gotta remember I’ve seen you try to put a lattice on a pie and you’re not exactly setting the baking world on fire.”

“That was years ago. I’ve improved.”

Bitty raises an eyebrow and Jack ducks in to kiss him.

“Go take a shower and take a nap. I’ll work on the cookies.”

“You’re going to try to do it alone?”

Jack presses another kiss to his forehead and then one to his temple. “Ask yourself something, Bittle.” He kisses down his check and to the side of his neck where Bitty pulls his shoulder up and giggles. It’s exactly what Jack wanted to hear. “Could the cookies get any worse than they are right now?”

Bitty bursts out laughing and wraps his arms around Jack’s neck. “I set the bar real low for you, honey.”

“I’m thankful for that every single day.”

Jack gets himself to his feet and holds his hands out to pull Bitty up as well. He turns him towards the direction of the bathroom and unties the apron strings for him.

“Take a long shower and an even longer nap.”

“You sure you’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be just fine.” Jack lifts the apron over his head and gives him a gentle push.

“You come get me if you need help, sugar.”

Jack makes a noise of affirmation and Bitty abruptly turns around and puts his hand over Jack’s heart.

“Jack. Sweetheart. If these cookies don’t work out,” he drops his voice to a whisper, “I’m going to have to bring store bought cookies to holiday parties.”

“I won’t let that happen.” He pats Bitty’s butt and tells him to get going.

Frank starts singing Jingle Bells as Jack hears the shower start and he begins to clean up.

He goes over the recipe that Bitty has printed out and hung on the cabinet as he scrapes flour and sugar off the counter.

There’s butter and eggs at room temperature already and Jack rereads the directions all the way through three separate times before he feels confident enough to start.

He beats the butter until it looks smooth and creamy to him and then Googles what it’s supposed to look like just to be sure.

Then he adds the brown sugar and the molasses, the egg and the vanilla, scrapes down the side of the bowl several times and panics when the butter starts to separate and get lumpy. A second Google search tells him that’s okay.

He’s careful to measure out the flour the correct way by spooning it into the measuring cup and then leveling it off and double checks the measurements of the rest of the dry ingredients.

With the mixer on low he adds the dry to the wet and mixes it until it comes together.

The shower turns off as Jack is dividing the dough in half and wrapping it in plastic wrap.

“How’s it going?”

Bitty steps into the kitchen wearing sweatpants that hang low on his hips and Jack’s flannel with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and only the two middle buttons done. He’s not wearing anything underneath.

“The dough has to chill,” Jack tells him and Bitty holds his hand out for him to take. “Three hours.” He slips his hand into Bitty’s. It’s soft and warm.

“Come lie down with me.”

Jack lets Bitty manhandle him into the right position in bed so he can rest his head on Jack’s chest and wrap his arm around Jack’s waist. Jack works a hand into Bitty’s damp hair and rubs at his scalp until Bitty goes boneless with a sleepy sigh.

“Did you taste the dough before you chilled it?”

Jack’s hand goes still and he takes a deep breath before he lets it out slowly. “It didn’t say to do that in the instructions.”

Bitty huffs a laugh and plays with the edge of Jack’s shirt, fingers dipping beneath the fabric with no real intent. “Probably doesn’t matter. The dough I made tasted great and then…”

“You know, there was a lot of measuring. I almost made a bunch of mistakes.”

When Bitty doesn’t respond Jack knows he’s already fallen asleep. He rubs the back of Bitty’s neck and tries to keep his breath slow and even as Bitty’s head rises and falls on his chest with every inhale and exhale.

Jack’s phone buzzes in his pocket three hours later gently waking him from a shallow sleep.

Bitty has drifted away from him just enough to make it easy for Jack to get out of bed without waking him.

He takes the dough from the fridge and generously sprinkles flour on the counter, the rolling pin, and his hands.

The dough is sticky but with a little extra flour he’s able to roll it out to the right thickness and cuts out shapes with the cookie cutters.

He pulls a stool up to the oven so he can watch them while they bake and right when they start turning brown around the edges he pulls them out.

They still look soft in the middle and debates putting them back in but then remembers Bitty telling him something about carry over cooking and sets the sheet on the rack to cool off while he gets the next batch in the oven.

Bitty wanders out of the bedroom just as Jack is taking the last batch of cookies out of the oven.

“Hey,” he says as he tries to find space to put the hot cookie sheet down. Almost every surface is spoken for. “Are you feeling better?”

Bitty nods and pushes his hair back from his forehead. “I can’t believe you did all this.”

“Yeah, well….” He shrugs and grabs a broken cookie off one of the cooling racks. “Tell me what you think.”

Bitty takes a bite and makes an impressed noise. “Honey, these are really good.”

“Really, you’re not just saying that?”

“I would never.”

“You would.”

“No, I would sugar coat it.” He puts the cookie down and loops his arms around Jack’s neck. “I’d say something like, _you know, for your first try you did such a good job. You know, these can be really tricky and the important thing is you tried your best. Did I mention how handsome you look today?_ I’d say that.”

“You’ve actually said that to me before. Word for word.”

Bitty leans up on his toes and kisses him. “I know. I can take over from here if you’d like.”

“Let me help. I want to see them through till the end.”

Jack organizes the cookies by shape, candy canes, reindeer, Santa hats, Christmas trees, then watches Bitty as he makes the frosting.

It’s a lot less scientific than baking as he adds more sugar and milk to get it to the right consistency then separates it into bowls so he can add food coloring.

He asks Jack for help so he can fill piping bags and squeeze bottles and sets everything down on the counter in front of the cookies.

“Alright,” Bitty says. “Have at it.”

“I’m sure there’s a certain way you want this done.”

Bitty shakes his head as he grabs a piping bag with white frosting. “Nope. Just have fun.”

Jack squints at him and Bitty rolls his eyes. 

“Okay, watch me. First you pipe the outline, try to keep your hand steady and let the frosting fall behind you. Then you let it dry for a bit and you grab a squeeze bottle and you flood the middle. It’s that simple.”

“Mine are never going to look as good as yours.”

“Well, for your first try I’m sure you’re going to do such a good job, you know, these can be really tricky.”

Jack bumps Bitty’s stool and some of the frosting on the cookie spills over the side.

Bitty’s laughing too hard to care.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas plays as they work side by side, bumping elbows and knees and getting in each other’s way as they reach for piping bags and bottles.

Jack dumps way too many sprinkles onto one of his cookies and eats it right away. Bitty wipes the crumbs away from his mouth and Jack kisses the back of his hand.

“I think I’m getting better at this,” Jack murmurs as he sets a candy cane shaped cookie down. The outline isn’t wobbly and the red and the white frosting aren’t running together. If he puts it next to one of Bitty’s they’d look almost identical.

Bitty finishes his last cookie and rests his head on Jack’s shoulder and his hands on Jack’s thigh.

Jack kisses the top of his head as he squeezes the last of the frosting out of the bottle. 

“Thanks for doing this for me, Jack.”

“Of course,” he says as he wraps one arm around Bitty. The outline will be a little crooked but that’s okay. “We’re a team aren’t we?”


End file.
